Skynet Goes Live

On April 19th, 2011, at 8:11PM, Skynet, the massive artificial intelligence network created by Cyberdyne Systems, gained self-awareness. In a panic, engineers tried to pull the plug, but Skynet fought back, triggering an apocalyptic war between humans and robots who look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That's all according to the mythology of theTerminator movies, of course. On Twitter and Facebook, April 19th became a sort of Technology Paranoia Remembrance Day.

In fact, in the original Terminator film, Skynet was said to go live in 1997, so if you think about it we're actually behind the curve in terms of creating our super-advanced robot destroyers.

But I think what the online chatter about Skynet – and the continued popularity of the Terminator movies – shows you is that our fear of technology is very real. No, robotics and artificial intelligence haven't advanced at the pace James Cameron imagined. But we do have computers that can beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!, not just out-processing us, but in many ways, out-thinking us. In a way it makes sense that we worry the next outmoded system on the planet could be us.

What I'd point out is that fear of technological change is as old as technology itself. Galileo was accused of heresy for his work with advanced telescopes proving the earth revolved around the sun. Electricity hasn’t given any mad scientists the ability to reanimate corpses, Frankenstein-style. So just because we're scared an army of Watsons will one day band together and turn against us doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Much more likely than judgment day, we're going to see artificial intelligence and digital technologies continue to offer us new opportunities for how we live, work, and communicate. As H.G. Wells observed so far ahead of his time, how we take advantage of those opportunities, and whether they are a net positive for our society, will be up to us. Skynet is science fiction. The responsibility for technology is real, and it falls squarely in our hands.